REPLICATION OF MOLLUSCUM CONTAGIOSUM VIRUS

Molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV) infects preadolescent children and s exually active adults, frequently causing a disfiguring cutaneous dise ase in immunosuppressed HIV-infected individuals. The development of a n efficacious treatment regime has been hampered by the failure to rep licate the virus in the laboratory. Here we report the first demonstra tion of MCV replication in an experimental system. In human foreskin g rafts to athymic mice, MCV induced morphological changes which were in distinguishable from patient biopsies and included the development and migration of molluscum bodies containing mature virions to the epider mal surface. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.